10 Horror Movies With Terrifying Surprises

4. Peekaboo With Ben Gardner - Jaws

Urban Legends Final Cut
Universal Pictures

To this day, 46 years after Jaws first swam to the silver screen, the sight of Ben Gardner's head will send a shiver down the spine of many a horror hound.

Sure, the horror genre has clearly offered up far more gruesome sights than this in the subsequent years since Jaws' 1975 release, but there's something still utterly jarring about Richard Dreyfuss' Matt Hooper discovering the remains of local fisherman Gardner.

Whether it's the fact that the moment still remains terrifying, or maybe it's more the moment reminds us of how terrifying this was the first time around, the surprise discovery of Hooper is a standout moment of a true standout, cinema-changing movie.

So surprising is all of this to Hooper, of course, it causes him to drop the great white shark tooth he'd found embedded in the hull of a sunken boat. Without that definitive proof of a great white being responsible, uber-prick Mayor Larry Vaughn is able to brush those concerns under the rug and keep the beaches of Amity Island open to the public while a Carcharodon carcharias stalks the shoreline.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.